Sol-gel extended hydrothermal pathway for novel Cd-Zn co-doped Mg-ferrite nano-structures and a systematic study of structural, optical and magnetic properties

Abstract

The novel study of Cd-Zn co-doped Magnesium ferrites CdxZn1-xMg0.25Fe1.75O4 (where x = 0, 0.25, 0.75, 0.50, and 1.00) has been made successfully by adopting a facile sol-gel extended hydrothermal pathway. Structural, optical, and magnetic behavior of the Cd-Zn co-doped Magnesium ferrites were systematically analyzed. From the X-ray Diffraction (XRD) patterns it was confirmed that the prepared samples have a cubic spinel structure. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) study revealed the agglomerated and irregular shape of Cd-Zn co-doped Magnesium ferrites nanoparticles. Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been studied for the confirmation of the presence of (M-O) bonding in the synthesized samples. Furthermore, the synthesized samples showed two frequency bands related to phonon vibrational stretching in both octahedral and tetrahedral lattice positions. The PL spectrum revealed the strong emission peaks in the ultraviolet to the visible region of all the synthesized samples. Raman spectroscopy showed the formation of four active modes due to the cubic spinel structure of all samples.Finally, the magnetic characteristics are calculated by using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) showing ferrimagnetic and soft magnetic behavior of all the Magnesium ferrite samples. As the Cd and Zn co-doping in Mg ferrites was increased, the Hc was decreased. The magnetic studies revealed that the maximum Hc of 576 Oe and maximum saturation magnetization (Ms) appeared for the sample Cd0.50Zn0.50Mg0.25Fe1.75O4, carrying Cd/Zn in 50/50 ratio. It is envisaged that the novel preparation of Cd-Zn co-doped Magnesium ferrite would be suitable for several applications, for example, magnetic recording devices, actuators, high-density data storage devices sensors, and biomedical equipments.